Decorating household objects with lavish carving was common in old Russia. I came across this beautiful handcrafted piece, a traditional berry picking tool (presumably dating back to late 19 century) on an online auction a few years ago. Today these devices are made...

One of the most common standing jokes about Russia has to do with bears roaming the streets of its towns and cities. How did this ‘bear myth’ come about? There are various explanations. One has a very old origin. Back in the IX century, Byzantine historians mentioned...

The Russian banya, or steam/bath house, is not traditionally thought of as the most sophisticated type of bathing. Traditions of bathing were, alas, almost lost in the Soviet times. However, as we learn from old texts, it was a fine art, a profound science even. The...

Did you know that before the Soviet revolution 1917-1921 there was no electricity in the Russian countryside. Radio was a powerful propaganda tool, so one of the first things the Soviet government did was 'radiofication' (installation of wired radio units and a...